San Francisco 49ers (43-54, .443, 6th NL West) @ Los Angeles Lakers (55-43, .561, 1st NL West)
The 49ers are dreadful… on an 0-6 streak with the worst offense in the NL. That they have the #4 rated pitching staff in the league makes them the equivalent of a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich without the jelly – a culinary halfway house. For a team that won the whole thing in 2074 to fall this far, this fast is something to behold – a mixture of poor personnel decisions, injuries, and players mired in their worst years of professional baseball. This free fall isn’t about just one thing – it’s a million little things that are sinking the ship in aggregate. For instance, take former Phoenix Sun, and current SF Closer, Frosty Dillard – last year he finished with a career best 2.93 ERA… this year he’s sitting a 5.45 (the second worst of his career). One thing they do have going for them, however, is Hamza McDonnell – rated as the 4th best SS in the NL (#2 in ‘stache maintenance), Hamza has hit .270/.342/.359 so far this year while playing stellar defense at SS – he’s not really a top-flight guy, but he is known as a sparkplug who is beyond popular with the hometown fans – a good glue guy. Unfortunately for him and the 49ers, there really isn’t enough pieces on the club that are worth gluing together.
99 of 162: Rick White (4-5, 4.98) @ Matt Olson (1-3, 2.08 – his first start of the year)
Olson strikes out the first batter he faced, walked the next, and got a DP on the next batter – we’ll take that kind of start from the recently promoted starter… going down in order in the bottom of the frame, though – not so much. A real pitchers duel early in this one – only 4 hits between us through the first 4 innings. We’d score two through the 6th and allow them to get one back in the 8th and ultimately squeak out a 2-1 win. Olson gives up a single run through 7 and is the beneficiary of 3 DP’s, Otto goes 2 for 4 with a run, and Sobania manages to get a couple of hits – not much else to see here (unless Pepper’s 2 K’s is something you are interested in). A win is a win as they say, though, and we will take it. Hamza – 0 for 3, San Francisco on a 7-game losing streak now.
100 of 162: Mark De La Cruz (4-2, 3.18) @ Michael Brisk (7-8, 4.43)
Brisk was feeling it – 7 strong and 1 earned on the day – and Pepper hit a 2-run HR in the bottom of the 3rd to help secure our 2nd W in a row by a score of 4-1. Otto finished 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI and we put another two DP’s on the board today – starting to get in a little bit of a groove now.
101 of 162: Landon Sampson (2-5, 2.93) @ Dejuan Burns (9-5, 3.83)
New guy Dejuan Burns gets his first start in the purple and gold – and puts the 9ers down in order. A good first impression. Of course, after he gave up a solo shot to the first batter of the 2nd inning – that first impression was easily forgotten… and after he gave up three more, the faithful were calling for my head. He’d give up 5 in 4 innings of work while Sampson was rock solid after giving up a couple in the first two frames. Otto goes 4 for 5 with the game-tying homer, and Clay Daniels hits a 2-run double off of Frosty Dillard to seal the deal – La La Land wins in extras, 6-5.
102 of 162: Matthew Townsend (11-3, 2.95) @ Case Tunnell (7-3, 3.64)
Case handcuffed the 9ers to secure the four-game sweep – 8.2 shutout innings in the 1-0 win. Townsend was stellar as well, but let one get across in the 2nd that was all we would need. Clay Daniels brings in the winning run on an RBI single, and Otto finishes 1 for 3. The Lakers secure a much needed 4-game sweep here and are back on track.
Interleague silliness against Houston & Seattle up next…